Bowl guard



Nov- 19 B. J. CLICK ET AL 2,811,724

BOWL GUARD Filed Jan. 20, 1956 INVENTORS BILLY J cZ/cz, v

E/CHAED 0. BOLD/N61, 7 y I United States Patent F BOWL GUARD Billy I. Click, San Bernardino, and Richard D. Balding,

' Colton, Calif.

Application January 20, 1956, Serial No. 560,302

2 Claims. (0. 4-257 This invention relates to a guard device applicable to a toilet bowl, for the purpose of arresting cloth articles that may be deposited in the bowl, and that are being flushed out of the bowl with the remaining bowl contents.

It is well known that certain articles, when deposited in a toilet bowl, will tend to clog a sewer line is flushed out of the bowl into said line. Articles composed wholly or in part of fabric material are particularly prone to cause this difiiculty, by reason of the fact that they are not capable of being readily disintegrated, and tend to remain intact when flushed out of the bowl, to form obstructions which will interfere with the ready passage of waste and other material flushed out of the bowl.

Heretofore, it has been proposed to provide means insertable in the toilet bowl, which means will be adapted to arrest fabric articles or the like. The present invention, accordingly, does not constitute such a means in the broadest sense. Rather, the present invention is directed to an improved bowl guard, which will function in a manner such as to increase measurably the commercial feasibility of the article.

One important object of the invention is to provide a bowl guard which will be characterized by the ease with which it may be applied to or removed from the associated portion of the toilet bowl.

Another object is to provide a bowl guard which will be capable of being formed from a single, readily fabricated, inexpensive metal stamping.

Another object is to provide a bowl guard which will be so designed as to not interfere with the passage of ordinary waste, flushed out of the toilet during normal operation thereof, but will still be disposed for engaging fabric articles before the same can be flushed out of the bowl to an extent where they cannot be readily retrieved.

Still another object is to locate the fabric-engaging element of the bowl guard in such a position that it will be disposed in the path normally taken by the fabric during the flushing the bowl contents, said element, in this connection, being disposed adjacent the top of the passage, out of the center portion of the passage, so as to permit the ready passage of normal waste while still arresting the passage of the fabric material.

Still another object is to provide a device of the nature referred to that can be readily removed whenever desired, after it has engaged a cloth article, and will, after disposal of said article, he replaceable in position with equal ease and facility.

Other objects will appear from the following description, the claims appended thereto, and from the annexed drawing, in which like reference characters designate like parts throughout the several views, and wherein:

Figure 1 is a sectional view through a water closet or toilet equipped with a bowl guard formed according to the present invention;

Figure 2 is an enlarged edge elevational view of the bowl guard per se;

Figure 3 is an end elevational view of the bowl guard as seen from the right of Figure 2;

2,811,724 Patented Nov. 5, 1957 Figure 4 is a bottom plan view of the bowl guard; and

Figure 5 is a perspective view of the bowl guard, showing a modified construction.

In Figure 1 there has been illustrated a conventional water closet generally designated 10, having a flush tank 12 and a bowl 14. The bowl has a back wall 16 merging into an upwardly inclined portion 18, and above portion 18 there is provided a front wall 20 of the bowl, cooperating with the portion 18 and with the outer, front wall of the toilet bowl in forming a tortuous passage or trap 22.

A bowl guard has been generally designated at 24, and includes a straight, elongated body portion 26, merging at one end into a reversely extending clip .portion 28.

It will be seen that the body portion and clip portion together constitute an approximately J-shaped body, with the short leg of said body being inclined slightly, that is, extended in converging relation to the long leg or body portion 26, in a direction away from the bight portion of the body.

By reason of this arrangement, the body can be removablyclipped onto the depending, lower'edge portion of the front wall 20 of the bowl, and when the guard is so clipped, the body portion or long leg thereof will extend in contact with the underside of the front wall, that is in contact'with the top surface of the trap, at the trap entrance.

Struck out of the material of the body 26, intermediate opposite ends thereof but closer to the free end thereof, are laterally spaced, triangularly shaped prongs 30, 30. These are struck out of the material of the body in a direction away from the short leg 28, and thus, extend into the trap passage 22. It is to be noted that the prongs are so arranged that their free ends point toward the trap entrance, and thus, there is provided upon the device means in the form of the prongs 30, 30 adapted to engage a fabric article should said article enter the trap 22. An article passing into the trap entrance tends to move along the top surface of the passage 22, and as a result, will be immediately engaged by the prongs 30, so that it will not fully enter the trap and will be capable of being retrieved without its being flushed into the sewer pipe where it may tend to form an obstruction.

At the same time, however, the extension of the prongs 30 from the top wall of the passage, with said prongs remaining in closely spaced relation to said top wall, has

the desirable characteristic that there is a minimum obstruction of the center portion of said passage 22 to the passage of waste materials. In other words, the passage 22 at its entrance end is still left Wholly unobstructed, except for the very small abutments defined by the prongs 30. The wall of the passage 22 is left free of obstructions for the full circumference thereof except for the relatively small part of the passage circumference defined by the width of the body of the device. As a result, crevices in which deposits and discoloration may be formed over a period of time are reduced to a complete minimum.

In the modified construction illustrated in Figure 5, again the bowl guard is formed from a single metal stamping, and the body has the same general shape as that of the first form. The device has here been designated at 24a, and includes a wide, flat, straight body portion or long leg 26a merging into a bight portion which in turn merges into a short leg or clip portion 28a extended in converging relation to the body 26a, in a direction away from the bight.

At its free end, the long leg 26a is formed with a deep, wide slot 29a, defining at opposite sides of the slot relatively narrow prong support portions 31a which initially lie in the plane of the body or long leg 26a The prong support portions 31a merge at their free ends into reversely, outwardly curved, pointed prongs 30a" which are transversely spaced inthe same manner as the prongs 30. r

By: reason of the arrangementillustrated,"the 'sharply tipped, widely spaced prongs 30a are adapted; to-fuhction efiiciently in arresting fabric articles nection, it may be desirable under some circumstances to dispose the prongs 3011a distance away from the top wall of the passage or conduit 22 greater than that at which they'would be normally disposed when the prong supportportions 31a are in contact with the top wall of the passage, thatis, are in the plane of the long leg 26a. Under these circumstances, prong support portions 31a might be bent out of the plane of the long leg 26a, to locate the prong elements 30a closer to the center of the passage; The spring metal stamping is, of course, made of a material capable of being resiliently flexed to spread the body and clip portions 26, 28or 26a, 28a sufficiently to engage the same with the lip at the entrance end of the trap passage 22, the resiliency of the material then asserting itself to hold the device securely engaged with said lip.

It is believed clear that the invention is not necessarily confined to the specific use or uses thereof described above, since it may be utilized for any purpose to which it may be suited. Nor is the invention to be necessarily limited to the specific construction illustrated and described, since such construction is only intended to be illustrative of the principles of operation and the means presently devised to carry out said principles, it being considered that the invention comprehends any minor changes in construction that may be permitted within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. The combination, with the overhanging lip at the entrance end of a toilet bowl trap, said lip being formed as a thick, smooth-surfaced wall overlying the trap and In this conhaving a rounded end edge at the trap entrance, of a guard for snagging articles passing into the trap, said guard comprising a spring clip formed with spaced legs and with a bight portion connecting the legs, said legs being spring-tensioned into engagement with opposite faces of the lip and the bight portion being curved correspondingly to the rounded end edge of the lip in embracing relation to the lip, said clip being further formed on one leg thereof that extends in contact with the underside of the lip, with prongs extending outwardly from said one leg in positions pointing toward and spaced inwardly from the trap entrance.

2. The combination, with the overhanging lip at the entrance end of a toilet bowl trap, said lip being formed as a thick, smooth-surfaced walloverlying the trap and having a rounded end edge at the trap entrance, of a guard for snagging articles passing into the trap, said guard comprising a spring clip formed with spaced legs and with a bight portion connecting the legs, said legs being spring-tensioned into engagement with opposite faces of the lip and the bight portion being curved correspondingly to the rounded end edge of the lip in embracing relation to the lip, said clip being further formed on one leg thereof that extends in contact with the underside of the lip, with prongs extending outwardly from said one leg in positions pointing toward and spaced inwardly from the trap entrance, the legs and bight portion in the tensioned, lip-engaging positions of the legs, extending in face-to-face contact over their full areas with said facesand end edge, respectively, ofthe lip.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,246,275 Johanson Nov. 13, 1917 2,233,230 Tinnerman Feb. 25, 1941 2,245,510 Turley June 10, 1941 2,598,543 Holfman May 27, 1952 2,693,603 Lehmann Nov. 9, 1954 

